Likely president sees new Iraqi regime soon
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Kurdish leader expected to be selected Iraq's transitional president said the recently elected National Assembly will form a government when it meets next week.
In an interview with CNN, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani said that the assembly will meet March 25 or March 26 and propose an assembly speaker, president and prime minister.
Talabani said he is expected to become president while Shiite Dawa Party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari is expected to be selected prime minister. He said lawmakers want a Sunni Arab to be assembly speaker.
The Shiites and Kurds have nearly finished their talks, he said, and their goal is to bring more factions into the government, such as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's coalition and Sunni Arabs.
The combined seats of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish bloc, which came in first and second respectively in the January 30 election, make up a solid majority in the assembly.
The body's main responsibility is writing a permanent constitution, which will be put before voters in a referendum later this year.
After that constitution is ratified, national elections for a permanent government will be held. They are expected to be held later this year.
Features of new government
Talabani revealed that Shiites and Kurds have agreed that the constitution will be based on the transitional administrative law -- the interim constitution in place -- to ease fears that strict Islamic rules will be the foundation of the new law.
He said the new government will be less hard on former Baathists -- members of Saddam Hussein's party -- and will include Kurdish pershmerga militias in Iraqi security forces. Some of these militias will be retained as special operations forces.
Referring to the the status of Kirkuk, a city that the Kurds want to bring into the Kurdish autonomous region, Talabani said that issue will be discussed when the new constitution is ratified.
Other developments
Britain said it is awarding its highest military honor -- the Victoria Cross -- to Pvt. Johnson Gideon Beharry "for two separate acts of outstanding gallantry of the highest order." Beharry, 25, led soldiers to safety during two ambushes in Iraq last year. He is the first living recipient of a Victoria Cross since 1965. (Full story)The Swedish Foreign Ministry said Friday that an Iraqi-born Swede kidnapped in Iraq more than a month ago has been released. Sweden's National Police said the family of politician Minas Ibrahim Al-Yousifi told authorities of his release. (Full story)Three Iraqi civilians died Thursday in a collision between a civilian vehicle and a military combat logistics patrol near the north-central city of Tikrit, the U.S. military said Friday. An American soldier died from a gunshot wound Friday during a patrol in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The number of U.S. deaths in the war stands at 1,520. 
